Chapter Text
*
“Are you sure you’re doing it right?” Minnie asked as she felt her scalp being massaged by Miyeon.
“It literally says ‘apply to hair’, what could I be doing wrong?” the older asked, almost fainting as she felt the strong scent of chemicals infiltrating her lungs.
“Knowing you, everything.” Minnie answered.
She could almost hear Miyeon roll her eyes.
“It’s a black colour, I wouldn’t be able to do it wrong even if I tried.” the oldest stated, which was enough to shut Minnie up. “You’re just a rich kid with the luxury of going to salons for these stuff.”
“Not anymore.” Minnie reminded.
Miyeon bit her lower lip. The Thai really had given everything up to be with her. Her family, her home, her financial security, her overall safety. And she hadn’t asked anything in return. She was even ready to give Miyeon up if that would make the other happier. The Korean felt like she owned the other so, so much. She had to do something to give her back.
“Someone once told me, that if you truly love someone, you always smile a little.” Miyeon said. “And I hadn’t been smiling since you left, until that night you bought me ice cream. And now I find myself unable to stop smiling when I look at you.”
She lowered her head to kiss Minnie’s neck.
“What are you saying?” the younger asked.
“Min... I owe you so much.” she said against the other’s neck. “So much more than I could’ve imagined. I owe you a family, a home.”
“Miyeonie-“
“Let me give that to you. Everything I owe you, let me give that back to you.”
Minnie turned her head as Miyeon lifted hers, until their lips were only inches apart.
“You don’t owe me anything.” Minnie whispered.
Their lips met in the sweetest, calmest and slowest kiss they had ever had. Miyeon’s lips graced over Minnie, as they showed each other all the love they carried in their hearts.
Then, they pulled away and smiled at each other. It was sweet, and a little drowsy at first, until Minnie’s eyes shifted up to the top of Miyeon’s head, and she started laughing loudly.
The older questioned her by raising a brow.
“You’ve got black colour all over your eyebrow!” Minnie blurred out between laughs.
*
*
*
“You texted them, right?” the anxious Shuhua asked as she shifted in her seat.
”I texted Soojin, yes.” Yuqi answered, eyes out the window. “Well, Soyeon was the one who answered but it was SooSoo’s phone.”
Shuhua nodded slowly. Her eyes drifted to the window where a city had started showing in the distance. The buildings were high enough to disappear in the clouds.
“Look, Shu, I’ve gotta tell you something.” the Chinese said, feeling the nerves in her body tightening.
The older looked her way and nodded as encouragement.
“So...” she shifted awkwardly and started playing with her fingers. “Something kinda happened... between me and Soyeon.”
Instead of the glare or frown Yuqi was expecting, she could see no change in her facial features at all. Then, a slight smirk started growing, making Yuqi frown in confusion.
“What?” she blurted out.
“I saw you all nakey.” Shuhua went up in pitch on the last word. “With her... in your arms.”
“What?” Yuqi reddened. “When?”
“Last night.”
“You walked in on us?” the Chinese raised her voice and turned even more red.
Shuhua just giggled and pointed at her sister’s disturbed face.
“What?” the younger heard the irritation growing in the other’s voice.
“You were both asleep.” Shuhua clarified and saw the other loosen up. “Basically on top of each other.”
Yuqi fell back in her seat and could breathe normally again.
“Aren’t you mad?” she then asked.
“Mm...” she squeezed her eyes the slightest bit. “I think I saw it coming.”
The older nodded.
“I don’t approve but there’s nothing I can do about it.” Shuhua stated. “Just know that I’ll kill her if she hurts you.”
“She’s not gonna hurt me.” Yuqi said confidently. “She’s not like that.”
“She almost did in the past.”
“I’m sure she...” the Chinese could hear her voice go from confident to unsure, “had her reasons.”
Yuqi remembered that she had little to no clue about why Soyeon actually left all those years ago. She was sure it was because of her parents, but why right then? Why not sooner or later? Something must’ve happened, right? And why couldn’t she tell anyone except Soojin? Was it that she didn’t want to tell anyone? Then why did Soojin have the privilege of knowing, and not Yuqi?
All these thoughts floated around in Yuqi’s head as they arrived in Seoul.
The bus made a beep, to signal that the engines were stopping and the doors opening.
Yuqi’s heart made a happy jump as she saw the two older through the window. It had only been one day since she saw Soyeon but she’d still missed her. Her heart stopped jumping around when she looked to her side, where Shuhua was biting her lower lip as she kept her gaze down. Soojin was wearing the same face outside the window.
The two foreigners were almost the last two getting off the bus, and when they did, there were several people between them and the other two. But after some pushing, and Yuqi’s breath disappearing out of her chest so that Shuhua had to hold her up, they reached the other two.
Despite Yuqi bending down, Soyeon hugged her and helped holding her up meanwhile. Shuhua’s hand was still on Yuqi’s back, just in case. Just in case Soyeon couldn’t, or wouldn’t, handle it. She didn’t even notice Soojin, who was standing by Soyeon’s side. She was too busy eyeing Yuqi, who’d snuggled into the short Korean’s neck. Soyeon’s eyes were closed and her smile wide, as she tightly held onto Yuqi’s waist. Maybe Shuhua should let go of the Chinese, just not yet.
The the couple pulled away, Yuqi turned to Soojin and gave her a hug. Soyeon walked to Shuhua at the same time, and quietly asked for permission to hug her with her eyes. The Taiwanese nodded reluctantly, but she barely hugged Soyeon back.
Maybe Soyeon and Yuqi expected Soojin and Shuhua to hug each other, as they stayed still a couple of minutes more, but that never happened. The oldest of the four started walking instead, to which Soyeon and Yuqi followed closely behind her. Shuhua walked at the far back, to keep her eyes on Yuqi. At least that’s the reason she tried to convince herself of.
“They’re hopeless.” Yuqi said with a heavy breath as she grabbed Soyeon’s smaller hand.
Shuhua pretended not to hear it.
*
*
*
“Miyeon, why is one of your eyebrows black?” was the first thing Yuqi said when the older opened the door.
It caught everyone off guard, especially Miyeon who widened her eyes, before her face turned into a frown.
“Hey!” she complained in a loud voice. “That’s the first thing you say to me? Not a ‘I’ve missed you’ or even a ‘nice to see you’? God, kids these days.”
The Chinese just chuckled before hugging Miyeon, before loudly screaming at the Thai as she entered the apartment. Miyeon greeted the other three and welcomed them in, before she turned around to a frozen Yuqi.
“Your hair is black!” Yuqi nearly screamed, to which Minnie raised both eyebrows as to say ‘duh’. “Did you turn emo or something?”
“What?” Minnie asked. “My hair is naturally black, why are you so surprised?”
“You’ve always had bright colours for as long as I’ve known you, and now you’ve gone black!”
Shuhua had to push Yuqi forward so the other three could enter properly, which caused her to stumble into Minnie’s arms.
Within a second, all six were inside the main room in the apartment, most seated on the couch but Miyeon and Soojin were in the kitchen. Miyeon was there to unpack all the ordered food, and Soojin to avoid a certain Taiwanese.
“So he’ll let you keep the apartment?” the dancer asked as she pressed a chopped cucumber into her mouth.
“Only until I find another apartment.” Miyeon said, lifting up the food from the bags.
“And you’ll do that with what money?”
“From my parent’s old house. It won’t be a mansion but... enough for an apartment like this one.”
The older brought the bowls and ship sticks from the cupboards and gestured for Soojin to get the glasses.
“And how will we pay for everything else?” the younger cousin asked.
“I guess we’ll use savings to begin with.” Miyeon answered. “Minnie has started looking for a full time job, and you and I can get a side gig or something. I’m sure they need a choreographer or background dancer somewhere, right?”
“And Soyeon?”
“If she’s staying, I’m buying her a keyboard.”
Soojin smiled to herself, before Miyeon’s loudest voice called everyone to help her bring the food to the coffee table. The dining table only had four chairs, and it wasn’t nearly big enough for six people.
Yuqi and Shuhua stumbled in mid-argument while Soyeon and Minnie hurried after. Miyeon didn’t even want to ask what they were fighting about, and instead handed them the different bowls of food, before doing the same to Soyeon. Minnie had walked to her side, and waited until Soojin too had left the room, before she wrapped her arms around Miyeon’s waist from behind and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek.
“Are you trying to get special treatment?” Miyeon asked, holding the food she was going to give to Minnie.
“Maybe.” the younger muttered and hugged Miyeon tighter.
“Won’t work.” she sing-sung. “You still have to help.”
Minnie pouted as she let go and grabbed the bowls, causing Miyeon to chuckle before following her out with two bowls of her own. She wasn’t surprised that all of them had started eating, and barely noticed her, when she sat down on the flour beside Minnie.
“You took all of it!” Soyeon shouted and pointed at Yuqi’s bowl. “Give me some!”
“Finders keepers!” she growled back and pulled her bowl closer to her chest.
“Give it back!” Shuhua joined the fight.
“No I have to gain weight so it’s only natural if I get all the mandoo.” she squeezed her lips together in a smug smile.
“Or you could eat a little of everything like everyone else does.” Minnie said as she grabbed some tteokbokki on the other side of the table.
“Soyeon get to pick what she’s eating! Then I get to too!” the Chinese got defensive and started pointing with her chopsticks.
“I’m an exception.” Soyeon said calmly, still trying to reach Yuqi’s bowl. “I don’t eat vegetables.”
“And that’s unhealthy!” Miyeon chimed in. “You’re nearly twenty, you should eat your vegetables.”
“Says the girl who eats instant noodles for a snack every night.” Minnie said while playfully rolling her eyes.
There were several more arguments during their dinner, most of them forgotten when the food was down their stomachs. Shuhua never failed to notice how Soojin’s eyes looked at her from time to time, and Soojin didn’t miss how Shuhua’s did the same. But all the girls were screaming too loudly around them to have a conversation of their own.
Miyeon soon brought in the drinks, which were small glasses filled with soju, and then the entire bottle on the side. Soojin saw how Shuhua’s eyes instantly went to Yuqi, who glared at her before nodding.
“The only rule I actually follow, is the one that I can’t drink alcohol, or it’ll rub my immune system.” the Chinese spoke and stood up. “Do you have some coke or something?”
“Yeah, in the fridge.” Miyeon said back as she carefully placed down the tray on top of the table, but of course still managed to spill some.
No one minded the growing scent of alcohol in the room as they grabbed their glasses, and when Yuqi sat back down, the oldest spoke again.
“So, it’s been a long time since we had a sleepover, and I know that we’re older now and that you will protest-“
“Just get to it.” Soyeon cut in.
“But I thought it would be fun to play ‘end my sentence’.” she said, looking around at everyone who sat still. “I mean just cause-“
“I think it sounds fun.” Minnie smiled.
“Yeah, let’s go.” Soyeon said.
Everyone nodded and agreed with murmurs, making Miyeon smile widely as her idea was accepted. Minnie noticed and placed her hand on Miyeon’s knee, while looking at her happy girlfriend.
“I’ll start!” Yuqi declared, already turned towards Soyeon, so it wasn’t a surprise who she asked. “Your favourite person in the room is...”
“Soojin.” she answered with a smirk.
Yuqi pouted immediately and crossed her arms over her chest, but Soyeon just patted her shoulder. No one asked if her answer was true or not, for the sake of the couple.
“Shuhua, you hate me because...”
Shuhua looked around the room quickly, appearing to be distressed.
“Because you’ll hurt Yuqi.” she said carefully.
Soyeon nodded, before speaking up.
“I won’t hurt her.” she said. “I won’t leave her. She’s stuck with me now.”
A few giggles filled the room, even Shuhua grew a smile on her face, before nodding as well and then shifting her gaze.
“Uhm...” she said, searching with her eyes around at everyone. “Minnie...”
It took her over a minute to come up with anything, but Shuhua wasn’t ever known for her creativity so who could blame her.
“The most embarrassing thing that had happened to you is...”
It didn’t even take a second before Minnie smirked and opened her mouth to speak, to which Miyeon panicked and pushed the glass towards her mouth.
“Drink.” she commanded. “Don’t say.”
Minnie obeyed and emptied the glass, but her smirk was still there, and when she opened her mouth again, Miyeon had no soju to stop her with.
“So it was our first time-“
“Stop!” the older complained before grabbing a pillow and burrowing her head in it.
Soyeon and Soojin already started chuckling, signalling that they already knew the story.
“My brothers were home but we both said that we could be quiet. And it worked fine until Miyeon decided to kick down a glass from my nightstand. Not even a minute later both my brother barged into the room, Mac with a baseball bat cause they didn’t know I was home.” Minnie’s smiled was wide, and Miyeon had hid in the pillow.
Shuhua and Yuqi had joined Soojin and Soyeon’s snickering.
“So there I was, completely naked on top of a girl they’d never seen before.” Minnie laughed loudly. “I couldn’t look them in their eyes for a week after that, and Miyeon didn’t even step a foot in our house in a month.”
“It was embarrassing!” the older girl screamed from her pillow.
It took everyone another minute to calm down, and Miyeon to lower her pillow to make her red face visible for everyone in the room. But she still wore a smile and laughed along with the others.
“Okay, my turn!” the Thai said excitedly in a high-pitched voice. “Between lesbian sex and straight sex, you prefer... Miyeonie!”
”You’re literally asking her to choose between you and Kwan.” Soyeon pointed out, causing Minnie to glare at her.
Miyeon swallowed her glass without the two noticing, causing confusion when she started asking her question.
“Wait, wait, wait, you didn’t answer!” Minnie complained.
“I drank.” Miyeon declared but didn’t give her girlfriend more attention.
“But-“ Minnie was caught off, causing her to pout.
“Soojin, the person in this room you would kiss if you had to is...”
The dancer blushed immediately. Of course she had an answer in her head, but she pushed it away. She couldn’t think like that. It was gross to think like that. Instead, she brought the glass up to her lips, hearing complaints from everyone else, but still swallowing it and continuing around the circle.
They kept going for several hours more, until Minnie was too gone to form a single sentence.
*
*
*
Soyeon left a complaining Minnie behind her as she made her way to the bathroom.
“Don’t you like me more?” the Thai asked while holding a hard grip around Miyeon’s shoulders, making it a hundred times harder for Miyeon to prepare the beddings for everyone.
But Soyeon shut the sound out as she opened the bathroom door. Yuqi got a little startled at first, but then continued to swallow her nightly dose of medicine as Soyeon lurked behind her. Then, the smaller girl closed up to her, until she put her hands on Yuqi’s belly, and rested her forehead against Yuqi’s back.
“Woogi.” she said quietly.
“Hm?”
“Shuhua hates me.” she said quietly, in a voice that wasn’t her own, one that sounded more robotic than the one she was born with.
Yuqi chuckled and turned around to hug the other girl. It came clear during the night that neither of them were big on public display of affection, so Yuqi didn’t know how much her body had craved to be in the other’s hold. But as her arms fell around Soyeon’s shoulders, and Soyeon’s arms pulled her tighter, she felt the thrill all over her body.
“She doesn’t hate you.” Yuqi said. “She’s just protective over me. She’ll warm up to you over time.”
Soyeon pouted, but Yuqi quickly took it away by pecking her lips.
“Don’t think too much about it.” she said.
Soyeon nodded, not fully convinced, before Yuqi let go of her to swallow the remaining of her pills. The shorter walked away to the wall, and rested her back against it as she looked down on her arm, which was exposed due to her hoodie going up in Yuqi’s turn. The scars were all turning whiter now, the red ones not nearly as irritated anymore. It only stung once in awhile, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t bare with.
“Soyeon,” the younger spoke, and Soyeon looked up at her, “why do you have those?”
Yuqi’s eyebrows had frowned as she watched Soyeon through the mirror.
The older looked down at her arm again, before pulling her sleeve up even more to show the other all scars she’d owned over the years. The oldest ones had already disappeared of course.
“When I was younger,” Soyeon started, and Yuqi already knew this would be a long story, “my mom found me and Soojin kissing.”
The Chinese nodded slowly.
“But she didn’t like it, so she cut me as a punishment. Then she just continued over the years. And it became kinda grounding I guess, so I continued doing it when I had episodes in Busan.”
“Soyeon...” the younger muttered and instantly walked towards her. “I’m so sorry.”
The older accepted the hug she received, but she didn’t feel bad about any of it anymore. She didn’t want to put any energy on her past when she had this right now.
*
*
*
Shuhua had walked into the other room minutes ago to get a few minutes away from all the craziness. Even she had her boundaries sometimes. And she couldn’t take any more of the awkward atmosphere she had with Soojin.
She was just resting on her back, with her legs dangling down from the bed and her eyes staring up at the roof. The door made a little noise, before the bed moved beside her. Shuhua didn’t even have to ask who was there, as she clearly smelled the perfume.
They didn’t say a word, but the atmosphere still managed to change from awkward to calm. She no longer felt anxious, she just felt calm. Maybe it was Soojin’s scent or just simply her presence.
The younger lifted up her hand and spread her fingers, and the older quickly intertwined them with her own. Their hands soon fell on the little amount of space between them, as they both turned their heads to each other.
Soojin’s eyes were big and deep, and Shuhua’s were wide. She could swear she saw a glimmer in the older’s eye, but it was too quick and fast to be sure.
Shuhua felt the warm feeling all over her body again, only getting triggered more when even more of Soojin’s scent hit her nostrils.
She carefully moved her head closer to the other, and watched as Soojin did the same. They looked right into each other’s eyes, the same intensity dancing in both of them. When their noses met, Shuhua squeezed the other’s hand to make sure it was real. Then, she felt the hot breath hitting her lips. She was ready to fall right into pieces, only if she hadn’t listened to the words the breath let out with it.
“I’m trying with Hui again.” Soojin whispered, not backing away the slightest bit from Shuhua.
The younger though, she moved her head away quicker than she’d ever moved before. And left Soojin’s hand as well, as she jumped further back on the bed, suddenly in a sitting position, which Soojin followed her with.
Shuhua opened and closed her mouth several times, before biting her jaw together and scoffing. She didn’t even mind the tear starting to roll down her cheek, she was too done with this.
”I don’t know what the fuck is going on with you,” she hissed through teeth and tears, “but I don’t want to be a part of it anymore.”
Soojin’s eyes widened in confusion, and she was just about to open her mouth, when Shuhua spoke again.
“You’ve broken my heart too many times.” she scoffed yet another time, before clicking her tongue.
If she could punch anything, she would. She was sad for sure, but she was so much more mad. She was furious.
The younger girl glared at the stone-faced Soojin, before scuffing one last time, and landing her hand on the door handle.
“I’m done with you.” she spoke clearly with nothing but certainty in her voice, before wiping a tear and disappearing out the door.
The older girl was left alone in the door with her own thoughts. She hated her own thoughts. She hated them even more now.
*